"The key to effective slides," says Cliff Atkinson, author of "Beyond Bullet Points," is to distill the essential details of your presentation and tell a story that "takes your audience on a journey." A summary slide in your PowerPoint presentation gives the table of contents for your story and a handy way to move between different sections of the slide show. In PowerPoint 2003 and older, there was an automated feature that created a summary slide. That feature has been removed from more recent versions of the software.

Open your unsummarized PowerPoint presentation. On the Home tab, click the arrow under "New Slide." If you want a text summary, choose "Title and Content." If you want a graphical summary, choose "Blank."

Click on the first slide in the Slide Pane on the left side of the PowerPoint window. Right-click and select "Copy." Or, if you want to copy the text of the slide title, click the "Outline" tab at the top of the Slide Pane, click and drag to highlight the title of the first slide and then copy it.

Right-click on the new slide you created; under Paste Options, you'll see several options. For a text summary, choose "Keep Text Only." For a graphical summary choose "Picture."

Repeat the copy and paste process for all the slides you want in your summary. If you have a large presentation, you may want to summarize only the main headings rather than every slide.

Click the first image or highlight the first line of text. Click the "Insert" tab and then "Hyperlink." Choose "Place in This Document" from the options on the left. Click to select the first slide from the list and click "OK." Now you can click on the image or title in the presentation and you'll automatically go to that spot in the slide show.

Tips

Size your images to 1.7 inches high by 2.27 inches wide and you can fit 16 of them on your summary slide with even spacing between them.

Add a hyperlink on each slide or at the end of each section to return to the summary slide for easy, non-linear navigation.

About the Author

James T Wood is a teacher, blogger and author. Since 2009 he has published two books and numerous articles, both online and in print. His work experience has spanned the computer world, from sales and support to training and repair. He is also an accomplished public speaker and PowerPoint presenter.